These are the Droids You've Been Looking For

Short blog entry today, just letting you know that you can watch the April 29 launch of STS-134 on your Android device. Go to mobile.nasa.gov and select the “Watch NASA TV Live” link at the top. Be forewarned: it’s a beta, and we may reach a capacity limit. Also, because there are so many different devices using Android, some of them using different flavors of the OS, it’s possible the feed won’t work on some devices. We’ve tested them on as many as we can, but it’s impossible to be exhaustive. If you can’t get the feed, please let us know what device you’re using and, if you can, the version of Android and the media player.

Certainly has been an interesting few days for live video around here. Last week Yahoo, which has provided WindowsMedia streams of NASA TV since 2005, told us they wouldn’t be able to support the launch as they were reserving all their capacity for the royal wedding earlier in the day. They’re apparently expecting quite a bit of on-demand traffic for replays. Fortunately, we were able to work with Ustream to beef up our connections there.

There’s still a bit of a scramble since our primary feed comes out of the Marshall Space Flight Center, which was severely affected along with the rest of northern Alabama by Wednesday’s severe storms. As far as we know here in D.C., our people are fine, which is good. But our thoughts are with everybody there and across the south who has been touched by the storms.

As always, let us know how we’re doing, whether it’s with the Android stream or any other aspect of the site.

50 thoughts on “These are the Droids You've Been Looking For”

  3. This is awesome! But sadly the video feed is not quite working on my droid 2. The picture appears to be slanted…

  5. I’m using a Droid X, with Android 2.2.1 and the stock browser. My picture displays as if the vertical hold is off – 3 images, all skewed to the left.

  6. I tried to watch on my TMobile My Touch 3g (Android 2.2.1) and got the “Sorry this video cannot be played” error.

  7. I was not able to stream live from my phone:

    Samsung Galaxy S
    Android 2.2.1 FROYO.VUVKB5
    Using the native video player and DoubleTwist

  8. couldn’t get the live feed going on my Droid running CM7. Just stayed at the loading screen, had 3g service.

  9. I had the same issue as the others…3 slanted images. Droid 2 Global 2.2 OS stock playerplayer

  11. @ Robin, Patrick and Malynda, thanks for your feedback. We saw that in testing and we’re working with Google to try to figure it out.

    @ Ron, yes we expect to have the Yahoo Windows Media streams back for the next attempt.

  12. I have an original Droid. I tried it at 1:08 PM (after the launch was scrubbed for the day). The streaming video feed worked perfectly.

  14. Tried to access nasa live with my droid x. I can get audio, but my video is skewed. 3 diagonally linked pictures, with a lot of distortion.

  15. I have an original Droid. I tried it at 1:08 PM (after the launch was scrubbed for the day). The streaming video feed worked perfectly for me!

  16. Hi,

    when I open the link I get a split second of audio and then a generic error message.

    Device: Samsung Galaxy S i9000
    Android v2.2 I9000XXJPP
    Player: “Video-Player” v1.0 (the one originally shipped with this Android build by Samsung)

    Christian from Germany

  17. Motorola droid 2, froyo 2.2, stock player. Having problems. Either green or fragmented.

  18. Thanks for all the feedback. Looks like what works on OS before 2.1 won’t work on 2.1 or 2.2. We’ll work on an intermediate solution before the next attempt.

  19. Hi,

    I had trouble with the NASA video feedback. The sounds was fine, but to the picture was slanted & scrambled badly.

    Im using a Verizon Motorola Droid X, Android 2.2.1.

  20. I’m very happy to be able to access this on my MyTouch 4g!

    It seems like the audio codec isn’t working too well on Android v2.2.1, using WebKit 3.1.

    It sounded like someone translated a Black Sabbath album into Mandarin and then played it backwards.

  21. Hi,

    I had trouble with the NASA video feed. The sounds was fine, but to the picture was slanted & scrambled badly.

    Im using a Verizon Motorola Droid X, Android 2.2.1.

  22. Thanks for the feedback. Looks like in trying to address earlier versions of the Android OS, we became incompatible with 2.1 and later. We’ll work on a solution for the next attempt.

  24. Hey guys caught you tweet and just wanted to let you know so maybe you could let the rest of your followers know Nasa.tv which requires flash compatibility works just fine on my Apple iPhone4 using the app Skyfire a free downloadable app in the App store, it converts the flash to a readable format for the IOS devices (the iPhone4 atleast) I’m running the current updated ver. of IOS, whatever the current ver. is .4 or whatever. Just saying it works fine audio and all, just heard and watched Mike L. Launch Dir. give the brief explanation of the Aux. Power Unit. Thanks guys !! Now let’s get this bird in the air one last time !!

    Ad Astra Per Aspera !!

  25. Works great on my Sprint Evo on a 3G network as well as my Xoom on a wireless network. Thank you for providing this!

  26. My video is skewed. 3 diagonally linked pictures, with a lot of distortion. No audio that I can here:

    Device: Motorola Droid Pro
    Android: 2.2.1

  27. I get the message “File had incorrect data” on my Epic 4G running 2 2.1 and stock player.

  29. Hello,

    I am using a Verizon DROID2 on Android OS 2.2 and the audio sounds ok but the video is distorted (slanted and scrambled is a good description).

  30. I had a little issue with the video playback. The picture goes all scattered the second I start to see some sort of movement in the video, hence the video itself pauses at times or the playback quality is unwatchable.
    I am using Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 mini, running android os 2.1, and I’m just using the built-in browser..not a specific video player.

  31. I’m not seeing the “Watch NASA TV Live” link at the top of page mobile.nasa.gov.

    Device: Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G (SPH-D700)
    Browser 1: Browser (Android default)
    Browser 2: Firefox v4.0.1
    Video Player: Video Player v1.0 (may be a samsung variant)

  32. I tried to watch on Samsumg Facinate with Android 2.2 and got a file error about 1 second after seeing the Hi Def picture. Please fix,I’m looking forward to watching the launch on Monday!

    Thank you for providing the feed!

  33. HTC EVO – Android 2.2

    No problems at all – full screen, solid audio/video.

  34. Good job guys, plays excellent on my Epic 4G, only thing I wish now was that it was a dedicated app instead of a mobile page…

  37. Tried watching on a Samsung Moment with 2.2.1 and got “Sorry this video cannot be played.” Otherwise I like the site and site it as my homepage 🙂

  39. NASA tv image on my droid is skewed vertically, however it does play and I get audio. I have a Motorola Droid X, running v2.2 of the Android operating system.

  40. VZW Droid 2 Global: audio ok, video badly slanted
    T-Mobile G2: Works perfect

    Is screen resolution the difference?
    Droid 2 Global is 480×854
    G2 is 480×800

  42. Works great on the HTC EVO (2.2); does not work on the Motorola Xoom (3.0). It tries to load but never completes loading the stream.

  43. Brian, thanks for asking for info. Here is my info:
    EVO 4G mobile, Android 2.2, Streaming Media Player by
    HTC Corporation vsn 1.00. I do not have 4G in
    this area so using 3G. My mobile has HD.

    I just watched the replay of the briefing.
    Here are my notes.
    Audio has a slight echo and is a bit scratchy.
    Could understand each word.
    Video was blurry,then more clear.
    When changed to a different speaker had a
    ghost image like an overlay of 2 pictures, then
    old pic would fade out and new pic would
    be clear. Not as clear and crisp as real HD.
    Froze twice then contined. Saw small squares
    sometimes, then would clear.

    Thought it was very good for a first try!

    I didn’t try to watch the launch using it.
    I use the SBPtv app. The audio is very clear
    but the video is blurry. Also use the USTREAM
    app. It has a beautiful HD video picture and clear
    audio but it buffers too much and freezes.
    So I flip back and forth between SPBtv and
    USTREAM.

    I also have SPRINT TV. There is not a NASA
    Channel on it yet. Hope they will add it in the
    future.

    Will look forward to using your NASA TV
    version each day.

    Please tweet or send an email if you have made
    some improvements!

    Thanks!

  44. My wildfire updated to 2.2.1 play it for about a minute before I get an error
    There was a problem playing this video.

    I only use HTC generic player.

    Help
    Thanks
    Gareth

  45. For the last week or so whenever I try it the message on top of my EVO is “We are currently unable to show the requested content, please check back later.”

  46. The RTSP stream works nicely on my Evo (2.2, not rooted). I also have no trouble picking up the Ustream there, with their client program. The Flash player works in Opera Mobile, but won’t full-screen (which may be my fault, but I don’t really care — no sense using the Flash player when a stream compatible with a native player’s available.)

    Now, if I could only get (easily) a (direct) link to an RTSP stream that I could play in mplayer on my desktop Linux box. (Currently, I extract the .asx link out of the Yahoo Windows Media stream, and play that, but it’s sort of fragile…)

    Kudos for all the work you NASAtv people do…

  49. I have a HTC Aria and can’t get NASA TV to work. I’m using version 2.2. Whis is the lates AT&T ROM update.
    Thanks
    Hal…

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